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Sunday, 10 August 2008

Rules to live by

Rule 1: Taste it first.

You may remember back in June I was making nocino - green walnut liqueur. Well, this morning I decided to have a taste and see what progress we were making. It was quite promising - vodka had gone in, a luscious green syrup came out. But OH MY GOD is it filthy. For those of you who thought Benedictine was the lowest human taste in liqueurs could go, this is SO much worse. Really. Erk. It combined the paint-stripper quality of cheap liquor with an indefinable herbalness. Paul found it repeating on him for several hours. He may need reconstructive surgery. On the other hand, our drains are likely to be spotless and we may be arrested by MI5 for concocting chemical weapons.

And the problem is that never having tasted "proper" nocino I have NO idea whether I have done something wrong. Is this the flavour that generations of Italian grandmothers were seeking? Or did I just fuck it up somewhere along the line?

So - it isn't really rule number 1, rule number 1 is READ THE RECIPE THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH. But I've lost count, so this can be the new rule number 1 - find out if you like the taste first.

It is worse than the roughest grappa I have tried! Maybe it will mellow to something delicious? I wonder how the medieval monks used to figure out their recipes? Do you think many people died tasting them?

I made some in 2009 that is approaching drinkable. Sump oil is the best description until then. My recipe is here http://annewheaton.co.uk/2011/06/29/green-walnut-liqueur-recipe/ Is it anything like yours?

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